Announcing the 8 winners of the Agile IoT Open Call #2

The second Open Call of Agile IoT opened in February 2018. 38 Companies from all over Europe applied for this call. Out of those 38 great ideas, 8 got selected to start their project with the Agile IoT Gateway.

AGILE is an adaptive and modular hardware and software gateway for the Internet of Things (IoT) with support for protocol interoperability, device and data management, IoT apps execution, and external Cloud communication, featuring diverse pilot activities, Open Calls & Community building.

The projects of the 2nd open call started May the 2nd of 2018 and will end after 6 months. During this period, they will integrate the Agile IOT gateway into their projects.

Below are the eight teams selected by the jury.

AirEx helps householders to reduce their heating energy demand without compromising indoor air quality. 16 million homes in the UK have air-bricks (air ventilation openings) that were originally built for ventilation purposes to avoid damp, however, they lead to 10-15% heat loss of a home. Blocking them permanently would increase the risk of condensation, moisture build-up, jeopardising occupants' health.

We developed a solution: AirEx, a smart ventilation control. It measures (or predicts) environmental conditions (such as temperature, humidity, air quality) and its smart algorithms automatically regulate the air-flow with a simple open/close mechanism. As a result, AirEx can achieve 10-15% heat demand reduction, which means c. 2 years payback via energy bills.

AirEx vents are powered by long-lasting batteries and due to our unique low-power yet high speed communication protocols we do not need any mains connection - it is a fit & forget device with very minimal maintenance needed.

Usage of Agile IoT:

Up to date, we have been using our own home hub for communication. The AirEx vent units talk to the home hub via RF and the hub sends the data to the cloud where it is stored and analysed.. However, moving forward we aim for a more agnostic, integrated system, and therefore we have been exploring possibilities of integrating our vent units to agnostic gateways and loT systems. During this 6 months project we will be working on this integration by porting our code to Agile loT stack and developing standard APls using Agile gateway. In the meantime, we will be undertaking continuous management and device updates using Agile Fleet Management, and also scoping possibilities of integration with other applications (particularly with smart thermostat technologies).

FlairBit is an Italian SME founded in 2015 in Genoa, a software development company and an IoT/Big Data platform (SenseIoTy), solution, and service provider. It provides consultancy services and scalable, reliable, secure, and complete software solutions for the IoT and Big Data markets. FlairBit is a team of Internet of Things enthusiasts with many years of experience in designing and delivering machine-to-machine (M2M) and Industrial IoT software solutions.

The target of this project is to integrate the Agile IoT gateway and services to increase Senseioty flexibility both in terms of data ingestion and edge computing capabilities.

There are 700 million surveillance cameras operational Worldwide. Nowadays, security infrastructure consists on a person looking at dozens of screens trying to find something suspicious. Studies revealed that after 20 minutes on the job, they lose up to 95% of the incidents, due to fatigue and loss of focus. To make it worst, only 2% of the surveillance cameras Worldwide are monitored, being the other 98% only recording. It is obvious the lack of security and privacy of current surveillance systems.

Heptasense is an Artificial Intelligence software that is able to recognize any threat on video, such as: theft, holding a gun or other dangerous object, general actions (running, eating, smoking, texting), suspicious behaviours, area breaches, and the learning of new behaviours. By connecting any surveillance camera to Heptasense's platform, when a threat is detected, an alert is sent to the security teams, in real-time, to act on it.

Usage of Agile IoT:

The goal is to use Agile IOT to improve how our platform works. We see three main possible benefits resulting of this integration:

Take advantage of the edge computing capabilities to support our existing services

Reduce the data volume in transit in the network

Integrate new sensor data in the platform

So to try to achieve this results we will try to integrate some of the modules from AGILE in the pipeline.

The most obvious integration is the device and data management tools from AGILE, that might enable us to integrate new sensor on the service and possibly support our alerting service. Last but not least, security is our main priority, so we are going to explore the data privacy solutions that AGILE offers in order to stay one step ahead in terms of data protection and compliance. We also want to explore the possibility of native integration with other cloud providers cloud providers.

ISTMOS is an IoT platform allowing stakeholders in the supply chain of wine products to monitor the most critical parameters affecting the quality of bottled wine during its storage and transportation. The platform enables users to safeguard wine quality by tracking temperature, humidity and luminosity conditions and issuing alerts when critical thresholds are violated.

It offers a unique end-to-end solution delivering fine-grained traceability on the transport and storage conditions of each individual bottle of wine, opening up entirely new possibilities and business models for stakeholders in the wine market such as wineries, wholesalers, distributors, logistics companies and retail outlets ranging from liquor stores to restaurants.

Usage of Agile IoT:

In this project we intend to evaluate AGILE as an interoperability solution for ISTMOS gateways. The modular, multi-protocol gateway architecture proposed by AGILE represents a promising approach to address the interoperability challenge faced by ISTMOS. Should it be successful, this approach would allow our company to save significant resources in R&D and go to market faster. Integrating the AGILE framework into ISTMOS gateways will involve hardware and software extensions.

Sensing & controldevelops IoT technologies and services around our proprietary IoT platform (nAssist), allowing companies to connect products efficiently, manage data and seamlessly interact with their customers based on intuitive web interfaces and smartphone apps. Our IoT platform offers numerous functionalities for different needs within smart home field that can enable flexible business models.

Within this project, we will analyse real-life sensor data collected from different households of elderly people, using motion and door sensors. Our objective is to automatically observe and model the daily behaviour of the elderly and detect anomalies in order to send notifications to caregivers. The sensor system includes a gateway, battery-powered sensors which are installed in strategic locations around the house. The sensors include open/close door (for main entrance, fridge, cabinets), and motion/activity sensors in the rooms.

Usage of Agile IoT:

The current gateway product of S&C uses a core technology that is proprietary of 3rd party and imposes restrictions that stops the flexibility need to drive innovations through the development of new functions that leads the implementation of new business models.

AGILE gateway technology will allow us to overcome this problem since this technology is delivered as 100% open source which will enable the building of new services on top of AGILE components. S&C will integrate the AGILE components to the existing product.

Sensinov commercialises an interoperability platform for IoT. We specialise in smart building and residential applications by building the necessary protocol connectors (south bound device technology and north bound IoT platform) to support multi-vendor and multi-technology interoperability.

Our value proposition is to dramatically reduce system integration cost and expedite time to market through ready to configure/deploy software connectors for both south-bound (devices) and north-bound (IoT and analytics platforms) technologies. We also provide features such as data portability and lifecycle management of IoT solutions to avoid lock-in for our customers. The solution comes also with differentiators for Data Processing and Analytics to perform fault detection and preventive maintenance.

Usage of Agile IoT:

We foresee two possible uses for Agile IoT Technology:

Partner with Agile IoT players for possible joint bidding and tendering activities for Smart Building market opportunities which is targeted by Sensinov.

Leverage Agile IoT (being open source) for Proof of Concepts and field trials

Use Agile IoT open source to extend Sensinov portfolio of connectors and expedite time to market

Agile IoT data for space (air and pollution) will be used to train and fine tune our Data Analytics and Processing Module. Therefore, our involvement with Agile IoT would offer to us the possibility to claim market references as well as enhance this product feature.

VizLore Labs Foundation (VLF) is a not for profit R&D organisation focused on innovative projects in all IoT verticals. By implementing edge infrastructure, we create ‘smarter’ environments that dynamically gather data from sensors and devices, so you can strategically monitor and implement workflows.

VLF operates its own IoT data analytics and machine learning cloud platform extended to the IoT edge through our family of universal IoT controllers. The IoT platform is an enterprise-grade cloud platform that provides the data analysis and integrated IoT services to implement ‘Smart Spaces’ and easily manage devices, sensors and actuators.

Usage of Agile IoT:

We present VizLore IoT platform and a plan to integrate it with the AGILE platform through joint blockchain fabric based on the open source Hyperledger framework. The goal of this integration is to enhance AGILE IoT platform with robust blockchain enabled security and privacy policy enforcement framework while at the same time broaden and enhance the potential of the VizLore federated IoT blockchain solution. The VizLore IoT platform comprises both cloud and edge segments. We are looking into the AGILE IoT platform as a potential partner in building the first cross platform federated IoT blockchain.

At Wearhealth, we believe that workers are an essential resource in the Industry 4.0., so we use off-the-shelf wearable and IoT devices from our partners and our proprietary cognitive technologies to build an intelligent system that can detect, prevent and predict safety and health risks of workers. With those insights, companies can identify markers of occupational risks, health, workload, and work efficiency, and thus, manage their workforce to improve their productivity, operational efficiency, and save money.

Usage of Agile IoT:

The AGILE IOT gateway/technology holds a promising proposition for our products and customers, since it will allow us more control over our product on a lower level in terms of security, hardware configuration and software integration. This enables further customization possibilities, which our customers are very fond of. As a base use-case, the device will be configured to support transmission of data over Bluetooth, ZigBee, SigFox and more. Storage and pre-processing of incoming data will be onboard and the connectivity to the local network and cloud will guarantee the transmission of data safely for consumption from micro-services. To achieve this, we will work on the hardware level to include the communication technologies and test different modules. On the software level we will deploy data pre-processing unit on board.